Swindon twinned with Disney World Options

[alan]

Following the news that Disney World had chosen Swindon out of 25 applicants as its first twin town i was invited onto the BBC Breakfast Show yesterday morning to discuss twinning.

This meant getting up 3.30am to get ready and on the road to be at the BBC TV Centre Shepherds Bush by 7am ready for an appearance at 7.40am. It was quite an novel experience despite being quite nervous about appearing on National Television.

I was informed beforehand that I would be on the "Breakfast Sofa" with Comedian/Writer and experienced Broadcaster Natalie Haynes to discuss the meaning and reasons behind Towntwinning and that Natalie, despite living in Birmingham knew nothing of their Twinning Links.

By the time I arrived I was getting quite petrified but was made quite welcome, shown to the Green Room, fairly small, but plenty of refreshments, tea, coffee, juice, water and to eat-croissants, choc muffins, biscuits, fresh fruit etc., a short wait there and into make up to have my face powdered to avoid shine on the cameras at which point I met Natalie my "opponent" who turned out to be a very pleaasant lady , then a further wait until we were asked to follow the floor manager to the studio.

We were supposed to be going on a few minutes early as the previous slot should have been with Lord Mandleson but he was still on GMTV so was not available, however, by the time we got into the studio Mandleson was available via a live link from Westminster so we had to wait a while, then whilst the weather report was on we made our way to the famous Sofa and were "miked up". At this point I was expecting some sound checks but the presenters chatted with us quite normally so I presume the sound checks were done then.

It was then time to start and after a short presentation of Library piictures of both Swindon and Disney World the Presenters opened the discussion with various questions about What is the reasons behind such a twinning" "what is twinning all about", "how did it start", "is it all about council jollies" etc Then, all of sudden it was over, never a moment for nerves, all very jolly and comfortable and really quite painless.

As we left the studio I was collected by young lady from Fivelive radio to do an interview with them and taken upstairs to their studio, but after 1/2 hr wait they apologised that they had to cancel the interview due to breaking news so I had to set off home again.

All in all it was a very interesting experience and although the direction of the discussion was led by the presenters, I was able to make a few points and I hope clear up a few misunderstandings about twinning..

Alan

[alan]

Following the above item, I have been able to obtain a recording of the programme for that day, but am struggling to extract the relevent sequence in order to post it on the website here.

In the meantime, I have come across a somewhat irreverent but amusing song about Swindon twinning with Disneyland by Mitch Benn which can be heard on u-Tube here